RUSSIA: UNITED STATES ENVOY LYNN PASCOE SAYS NEW ELECTIONS IN GEORGIA ARE A PRIORITY/GEORGIAN SEPARATIST LEADERS SLAM EARLY ELECTION
Record ID:
338340
RUSSIA: UNITED STATES ENVOY LYNN PASCOE SAYS NEW ELECTIONS IN GEORGIA ARE A PRIORITY/GEORGIAN SEPARATIST LEADERS SLAM EARLY ELECTION
- Title: RUSSIA: UNITED STATES ENVOY LYNN PASCOE SAYS NEW ELECTIONS IN GEORGIA ARE A PRIORITY/GEORGIAN SEPARATIST LEADERS SLAM EARLY ELECTION
- Date: 4th December 2003
- Summary: (W4) TBILISI, GEORGIA (DECEMBER 03, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. SLV PRESIDENTIAL OFFICES BUILDING; LAS GEORGIAN FLAG 0.11 2. SLV PEOPLE ENTERING PRESIDENTIAL OFFICES BUILDING 0.17 3. MV MEETING BETWEEN U.S. UNDER-SECRETARY OF STATE FOR EUROPEAN AND EURASIAN AFFAIRS LYNN PASCOE AND GEORGIAN INTERIM PRESIDENT NINO BURDZHANADZE, GEORGIAN STATE MINISTRY ZURAB ZHVANIA AND PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE MIKHAIL SAAKASHVILI (5 SHOTS) 0.41 4. SLV PASCOE ENTERING THE PRESS-CONFERENCE ROOM, GREETING JOURNALISTS; MV OFFICIALS IN THE ROOM 0.47 5. (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. UNDER-SECRETARY OF STATE FOR EUROPEAN AND EURASIAN AFFAIRS LYNN PASCOE, SAYING "We want to better understand Georgia's needs and difficulties at this point and work on mutual ways to look towards resolving it." 1.01 6. SCU GEORGIA'S SYMBOL (EMBLEM) ON THE WALL 1.06 7. (SOUNDBITE) (English) PASCOE, SAYING "Our position has been absolutely clear and consistent from the first. We want a free and fair election in Georgia in which the Georgian people select their own leadership and in which every Georgian who cast his ballot feels that they are equal to anyone else in making that selection." 1.34 8. SLV PRESS CONFERENCE 1.38 (W4) MOSCOW, RUSSIA (DECEMBER 3, 2003) (REUTERS) 9. SLV EXTERIOR OF ITAR-TASS NEWS AGENCY BUILDING 1.45 10. MV PRESIDENT OF GEORGIA'S AUTONOMOUS BLACK SEA ADZHARA REGION, ASLAN ABASHIDZE, SITTING DOWN FOR PRESS CONFERENCE 1.51 11. SCU CAMERA OPERATOR FILMING 1.55 12. MV PAN ABASHIDZE SITTING IN CONFERENCE 2.01 13. (SOUNDBITE) (RUSSIAN) ASLAN ABASHIDZE, PRESIDENT OF ADZHARA, SAYING "Nobody is ready for these elections. Nobody holds such high level elections at such short notice. We must prepare thoroughly for these elections if we don't want another farce." 2.22 14. WIDE OF PRESS CONFERENCE 2.27 15. (SOUNDBITE) (RUSSIAN) ABASHIDZE SAYING "Those in power must take into consideration the needs of autonomous republics, people who live in other regions and also other political parties. It's not a state approach when they talk about the unity of the country and when they stress that all the time. They should show in deeds that there is a force in power that takes all others into consideration and that tries to adjust to public opinion." 3.14 16. MV JOURNALISTS LISTENING 3.18 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 19th December 2003 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: TBILISI, GEORGIA / MOSCOW, RUSSIA
- City:
- Country: Georgia Russia
- Reuters ID: LVA509XKH0AZKY6J861AVOFAIVVF
- Story Text: U.S. envoy says new elections in Georgia a priority;
Georgian separatist leader slams early polls.
The United States is in discussions with Georgia's
interim leadership about ways Washington can help restore
stability to the ex-Soviet state.
"We want to better understand Georgia's needs and
difficulties at this point and work on mutual ways to look
towards resolving it," said U.S. Under-Secretary of State
for European and Eurasian Affairs, Lynn Pascoe after talks
with Georgia's interim leadership in Tbilisi on Wednesday
(December 3).
Pascoe, on a second visit to Georgia but his first
since the resignation of President Eduard Shevardnadze, met
acting President Nino Burzhanadze and presidential hopeful
Mikhail Saakashvili.
The U.S. delegation includes Treasury and Department of
Justice officials, as well as representatives from from
the U.S. Defence Department.
Georgia's interim authorities have asked the United
States for a 5 million U.S. dollars (USD) in immediate aid
to fund new elections. Presidential elections are set for
January 4, 2004 but no date has yet been fixed for new
parliamentary elections.
On Tuesday (December 2), the United States issued a
thinly-veiled warning to Russia not to back Georgia's
breakaway regions amid instability in the former Soviet
republic after last month's bloodless revolution.
Georgia, troubled by three restive regions, plans to
replace Eduard Shevardnadze in the coming elections, who
was toppled by mass protests last month after allegations
of vote-rigging in parliamentary polls.
In Moscow on Wednesday, a Georgian separatist leader
called for a delay in next month's presidential polls.
Aslan Abashidze, leader of Georgia's autonomous Black
Sea Adzhara region, said Georgia was not ready for new
elections. "Nobody is ready for these elections.
Nobody holds such
high level elections at such short notice. We must prepare
thoroughly for these elections if we don't want another
farce," said Abashidze.
He added that Adzhara would boycott the January 4
presidential elections if the poll to to replace
Shevardnadze was not delayed.
Abashidze, a frequent visitor to Moscow in recent
weeks, said Georgia's interim leaders must take into
account the wishes of the country's three separatist
regions.
Georgia's secessionist regions include the Mountainous
South Ossetia in northern Georgia which has behaved as an
independent state since 1992 and Abkhazia on the Black Sea
which broke away after a year-long war in which more than
10,000 people were killed. Neither self-proclaimed state
enjoys international recognition. Adzhara, also on the
Black Sea, has pursued independent policies but maintained
contacts with Tbilisi.
Georgia's stability is monitored by both the West
because of a 2.5 billion USD oil pipeline due to take
Caspian oil to the Mediterranean and neighbour Russia,
which fears instability could aid Chechen separatists holed
up in Georgian mountains.
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